Royal Enfield – Bulleting to Success
George Townsend established a sewing needle manufacturing company in the English town of Redditch in 1851. After this, in 1882, his son started making bicycle components, includin…
Business
Weikfield – The Sweet Taste of Custard Led the Way
When Satpal Malhotra was a boy living in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, he lost his father and mother within a few years of each other, at the ages of 15 and 19, respectively. He was left …
Ujala – 4 Drops to Success
Customers may credit Ujala's inventor, Moothedath Panjan Ramachandran, whose insistence on wearing spotless white garments every day is reported to have inspired the product's cre…
A Brand That Made A Splash: Bisleri
On November 20, 1851, in Verolanuova, Italy, an Italian entrepreneur, inventor, and scientist named Signor Felice Bisleri established the Bisleri company. To begin with, Felice Bi…
Limca – Lime & Lemoni
Ramesh Chauhan of Parle contacted his friends at Duke's with the idea for a 'veri veri lime & lemoni' drink. He had asked for the recipe for their lemon drink, pledging not to…
How Red Bull Got Its Wings
Chaleo Yoovidhya, a Thai entrepreneur from humble beginnings (son of poor Chinese immigrants), started TC Pharmaceuticals, which produced antibiotics in the 1960s.
In 1970…
Back From The Brink – Ray Ban
John Jacob Bausch, a German immigrant, and Henry Lomb, an American investor, established Bausch & Lomb in New York in 1863. By the time World War One broke out, Bausch & L…
The ‘Shampoo in a Sachet’ Revolution
An agriculturist named Chinni Krishnan also worked in the pharmaceutical industry. Poor kids wandering the streets with uncombed hair used to bother him. He envisioned a future wh…
How Ghari Did A Nirma on Nirma & Wheel
The HUL brand Surf dominated the Indian market in the 1960s. While hundreds of disorganised players serviced the mass and mid-range markets, Surf specialised exclusively to the af…
Brand Niching – Smaller Audience, Better Returns
With tens of thousands of businesses in every possible field, the online market has never been more crowded. Despite the upsides, however, it's more complicated than ever to set y…
Jeff Johnson & Nike – The Successful Connection
CEO Phil Knight and Oregon head track coach Bill Bowerman founded Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) in 1964. Initially, the firm distributed Onitsuka Tiger (now known as Asics) running sho…
Failure to Success – Gillette learnt the hard way in India
The Vector Flop
One of the worst marketing campaigns in Indian history was launched by Gillette in 2002 when they introduced the Vector razor. That razor model had a plastic un…
More Choices. More Confusion. Less Conversion
The more options a business gives its customers, the better, or so the thinking goes. For instance, they think that if they stocked 300 different kinds of shirts instead of just a…
An Insult Resulted in the Lamborghini Vs Ferrari Rivalry
In 1963, Despite his success as a tractor maker, Ferruccio Lamborghini was dissatisfied with his choice of Ferrari. The clutch was too easy to disengage, in his opinion. He took a…